Elon Musk was the sole funder of a super PAC formed in the final weeks of the election that spent millions on ads claiming that Donald Trump’s positions on abortion were consistent with those of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The $20.5 million Musk poured into that group, RBG PAC, is only a small portion of his total political spending this year. That includes $238 million to a super PAC he started and millions more to other GOP groups.
Overall, the world’s richest people have donated more than $260 million to the 2024 election, making them perhaps the largest individual political donors this cycle.
Musk’s involvement with his group, America PAC, was well known. The tech CEO appeared at events in swing states, posted about X’s super PAC, and ran a very public giveaway. But Musk’s involvement with RBG PAC has been more secretive. He poured $20.5 million into the group on Oct. 24, which was not disclosed until he filed a campaign finance report with the Federal Election Commission late Thursday. The timing of the donation meant that Musk’s endorsement did not have to be made public until after the election, and neither Musk nor the group publicly touted his support.
RBG PAC spent nearly all of its money on advertising. The ad claimed that Ginsburg, a longtime liberal justice and staunch women’s rights advocate who died in 2020, was “of one mind” with Trump on the abortion issue. The website featured a photo of Trump and Ginsburg with the caption, “Great men think alike.”
Supreme Court justices mostly avoid speaking publicly about presidential politics, but Ginsburg’s final wish in 2020 was not to be replaced by Trump on the court, her granddaughter said. Trump replaced her with Amy Coney Barrett just before the 2020 election. Barrett had the judicial majority voting to overturn. Roe v. Wade 2 years later.
RBG PAC ads poured into the final weeks of this year’s election. Democrats spent months and years attacking Trump over the abortion issue after the court overturned it, led by a judge he appointed. roeThis has led more than a dozen states to ban the procedure.
Musk, who is poised to advise Trump under the banner of the so-called Department of Government Effectiveness, has become a major political player this year, endorsing Trump and appearing with him on the campaign trail. Most of his spending went to the presidential race, but he also cut millions for down-ballot elections.
His America PAC raised $252 million during this cycle. The late spending push included nearly $41 million tied to petitions distributed by the group, with Musk gifting $1 million to certain signers and promising smaller checks to others who encouraged voters to sign them. The group also spent tens of millions of dollars on polling and mailings in the presidential election and millions more in more than a dozen House races.
In late October, Musk also donated $3 million to a super PAC linked to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and $924,600 to the Trump 47 Committee, his first direct donations to Trump’s operations. That joint fundraising committee sends money to the Trump campaign as well as the Republican National Committee and other Republican groups.
Musk also donated $1 million to the Republican-aligned super PAC Early Voting Action before this year and hundreds of thousands of dollars to a joint fundraising committee under Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.).
